On the field, it was indeed Italy that was suppressing the Chinese team.
Italy is indeed qualified to be contemptuous.
Even with several main players not starting and Lu Wenbin guarding the defensive midfielder position, Italy still put China's goal in danger.
In the 7th minute, Montolivo made a diagonal cross from the wing, Diamanti took the ball before Wang Yongpo, and then shot in the penalty area.
Fortunately, Zhao Peng rushed over and blocked the bullet hole, blocking the ball.
In the 14th minute, El Shaarawy made a cross from the bottom, and Gilardino had already occupied the first point and was about to head the ball.
Lu Wenbin rushed in from outside the penalty area and jumped high, pressing on Gilardino's head and sending the ball flying over the crossbar to clear the ball.
In the 21st minute, Candreva dribbled the ball and faced Lu Wenbin's defense but did not pass it back and wanted to break through Lu Wenbin.
As a result, Lu Wenbin made a precise tackle and intercepted the ball directly without committing a foul.
The overall strength of Italian players is indeed much stronger than that of the Chinese team, and their cooperation is also better than that of the Chinese team.
Even with Lu Wenbin in the backcourt, the game was still dangerous.
But there is a key problem, that is, the Italian players are not fighting enough.
In some 50-50 situations, the Chinese players will grab the ball most of the time because the Italian players are afraid of getting injured and it is not cost-effective.
There were also some long passes that could be recovered if one tried hard to chase them, but Italian players seldom chased them and just watched them go out of bounds or be caught by Chinese players.
Sometimes when there is a cross from the wing and a header is needed in the middle, facing the aggressive Chinese team, few Italian players are able to head the ball regardless of the risk of injury.
All the Italian players must have been thinking: "We are so strong that we can win no matter how we play. There is no need to fight hard with the Chinese."
Moreover, they may subconsciously be thinking, "It's not the championship anyway, we're just competing for the third place, so it doesn't matter if we lose unexpectedly."
The players of the Chinese team fought very hard.
In everyone's mind, this is not a third or fourth place final, but a championship match. Even injuries are worth it, just to win.
If they can get the third place in the Confederations Cup, even if they retire from the national team, it will be enough for them to return home and enjoy the glory for the rest of their lives.
Therefore, although Italy is much stronger than the Chinese team, it is far inferior to the Chinese team in fighting spirit.
The result of this was that although Italy had been pressing the Chinese team, they found it difficult to make threatening shots within the goal frame.
On the one hand, Lu Wenbin was in the middle and resolved most of Italy's attacks in the middle.
On the other hand, the entire Chinese team fought hard to continuously resolve Italy's attacks.
Not only does the Chinese team defend desperately, but they also have to think about attacking.
After all, their ideal is to win, and to win, they must score goals.
If we don’t score, we will definitely lose even if the score is 0-0 and goes to a penalty shootout.
Whether it is the level of goalkeepers or the strength of penalty kick players, the Chinese team is at a disadvantage in all aspects.
Only if the Chinese team defeats Italy within 90 minutes, or at most 120 minutes, can they win and get the third place.
However, Italy's defense is too strong.
Although they were pressing forward offensively, many times the combination of positioning and tacit understanding in joint defense was enough to delay or even stop the Chinese team's attack.
Even if we can't stop the ball, there is still goalkeeper Buffon standing in the goal, right
In the 9th minute, the Chinese team launched a counterattack. Lu Wenbin passed the ball to Hao Junmin, who then passed the ball to the middle, ready to find Wu Lei for a shot.
As a result, the ball was intercepted by Chiellini midway and Wu Lei didn't even touch it.
In the 18th minute, Lu Wenbin dribbled the ball forward and made a wall pass with Deng Zhuoxiang to get past Candreva, then shook off Chiellini at the top of the penalty area to get the shooting angle and shot.
The ball flew into the air and headed straight for the right side of the goal. It was about to hit the post and fly into the goal, but a gloved opponent appeared in the path of the ball: Lu Wenbin's shot was saved by Buffon.
The two sides exchanged blows and the score remained 0-0 for half an hour.
Then, in the 32nd minute, the Chinese team finally got another chance.
This time it was Italy's wing attack. Lu Wenbin directed Zhang Linpeng to defend forward, forcing the opponent to pass the ball. Lu Wenbin, who was well prepared, headed the ball to Zhao Peng before Gilardino.
After landing, Lu Wenbin turned and rushed forward, running out of space. He looked back while running, signaling Zhao Peng to pass the ball to him.
Zhao Peng understood what he meant and passed the ball in front of Lu Wenbin without waiting for Gilardino, who wanted to steal the ball, to get close to him.
The ball was passed a little too far, and De Rossi, who was nearby, rushed up and tried to compete with Lu Wenbin for the ball.
But Lu Wenbin's acceleration was too fast and he touched the ball first.
However, Lu Wenbin is also about to collide with De Rossi.
De Rossi thought, let him collide, as long as he could keep Lu Wenbin, it would be better than him rushing towards his half with the ball.
As a result, there was no violent head-on collision between the two. De Rossi was only hit on the side of the shoulder, staggering a little, and then he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
De Rossi immediately raised his hand to signal that Lu Wenbin had committed a foul, but the referee ignored it: Lu Wenbin had passed him with a beautiful Marseille turn, so there was no foul.
Lu Wenbin, who did not hear the referee's whistle, naturally did not care whether De Rossi fell behind him or not. He rushed towards the Italian penalty area with the ball at the fastest speed: he must not give the opponent a chance to return to defense.
Because of Italy's overall offensive, after passing De Rossi, Lu Wenbin was left with only midfielder Candreva, defender Astori and Chiellini.
Moreover, these three players also have to defend Deng Zhuoxiang and Wu Lei.
Chiellini followed Wu Lei, Astori defended Deng Zhuoxiang, and only Candreva defended and retreated, trying to wait for other teammates to return to defense.
But Lu Wenbin was too fast, and Montolivo, Maggio and De Sciglio were unable to catch up with him in defense.
As the distance got closer and closer, they were almost retreating to the restricted area line. Candreva had no choice but to rush forward and try to steal the ball.
At the same time, Chiellini also abandoned Wu Lei and was about to rush over to assist in defense: Lu Wenbin was much more threatening than Wu Lei.
But Lu Wenbin did not give Chiellini a chance to get close.
He shook Candreva hard with a bull tail, and then did not dribble past him. Instead, he shook Candreva off and shot with his left foot outside the penalty area.
Lu Wenbin's left and right feet are very balanced, and shooting with his left foot did not affect the quality of this long shot at all.
The ball flew up, passed in front of Chiellini, passed Buffon's fingers, hit the crossbar with a bang, and then fell into the goal. Buffon, who had landed on the ground, grabbed it and held it in his arms.
The Chinese players immediately cheered, but the Italian players repeatedly signaled to the referee that the ball did not go in and was saved by Buffon.
The referee also frowned and did not blow the whistle, but asked the linesman.
This was a goal-line mystery shot.
Did the ball cross the goal line in its entirety
Was it a goal by the Chinese team or a goal kick by Italy
The referee was a little undecided.
He had to seek help from the linesman and the computer goal-line technology that was only used in this Confederations Cup.